Nowadays immigrant cuisine is expected to replicate home country cuisine more closely than ever before. This is partly due to availability of ingredients, but cultural expectations have changed. Think of how Italian-American food was suddenly being disparaged as "inauthentic" in the Aughts by people who had never heard of balsalmic vinegar in 1998.
As for custard, we go to Culver's restaurants regularly, and their custard seems excellent to us. And this is a big franchising operation. So someone can still make custard machines...
Probably the best resource for the historical use of language in the United States is newspapers.com. It does not include every newspaper published in the United States. For instance, the New York Times and the Washington Post are only available in years that they are in the public domain. “Pizza” occurs in a bell-shaped curve taking off in the 50s and strangely decreasing after 2010.
2010s 1.9 million
2000s 4.7 million
1990s 5,9 million
1980s 5,4 million
1970s 4 million
1960s 1.9 million
1950s 600K
1940s 49k
A big reason for the takeoff of American knowledge of how to say pizza was the Dean Martin platinum #2 hit in late 1953, “That's Amore.” The song begins, “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's Amore."
I can think of two reasons for the sharp drop-off in mentions of pizza in the 2010s and 2020s. The first is the loss of advertising income for newspapers— simply not as many ads for pizza parlors. The secondary reason may be that pizza was no longer newsworthy.
From what I know about Italy in 1944 they were basically on starvation rations. I don't think too many restaurants were open. There are a few mentions of pizza in American newspapers going back to the 19th century. I think this is an Italian American phenomenon.
Was food better in the past? A person could be skeptical about this and claim that this is just the "rose-colored glasses" of nostalgia. You know, the same way that people claim that baseball, music, and bars were also better "back in the day."
With ethnic family restaurants, though, it seems plausible that they served better food in the 1950s and 1960s than a 2020s chain restaurant, where the food is mostly frozen, processed, pre-seasoned, and pre-portioned.
In the past, restaurants were more likely to make soups, sauces, marinades, and gravies from scratch. Nowadays these items are bottled or powdered and filled with additives and preservatives. As well, in the past, restaurants were more likely to use family recipes and cooking practices learned by word of mouth.
I had an experience where the youngsters just don't know what's going on. I went into a new Chinese takeout shop in my neighborhood and was disappointed by the fried rice. The next time, I said, “I'd like some fried rice with Chinese vegetables." The young man speaking perfectly English said to me, "Peas are Chinese vegetables." It was pretty obvious to me that these peas came out of a plastic bag from a Kroger about 200 yards away. I said, “No, they are not." Needless to say, I never went back, and I think this joint went out of business shortly thereafter.
BTW, we have a great Chinatown in sprawling Houston, but it is unfortunately about 15 miles from my house.
Foreign food was definitely rare in the other Manhattan. I remember sharply the first time we ate at a Mexican restaurant in 1961. It was on the wrong side of the tracks and seemed sort of dark and grimy, but the food was an OH WOW revelation. Not the familiar tacos and burritos, a chili that contained *recognizable pieces and flavors* of beef and tomatoes and beans.
My mom was an outstandingly bad cook, opening cans and boiling everything down to a tasteless mush, so perhaps the Mexican-ness wasn't the salient factor. School cafeteria food and jail food were also wonderful. Even so, this one bowl of chili remained with me as the gold standard, and I've always tried to aim in that direction with my own cooking.
In reference to your question about the word "pizza," here's something I've noticed:
In 1975, Steely Dan released their album "Katy Lied," which included a song called "Bad Sneakers." The first line of its chorus goes:
Bad sneakers and a pina colada, my friend
Donald Fagen sings "peena colada."
In 1979, Rupert Holmes released "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)." One of its lines is:
If you like piña coladas, and getting caught in the rain
Holmes sings "peenya colada" (which is why I included the tilde in this case; I don't actually remember whether the song's alternate title was printed with the tilde).
Nowadays immigrant cuisine is expected to replicate home country cuisine more closely than ever before. This is partly due to availability of ingredients, but cultural expectations have changed. Think of how Italian-American food was suddenly being disparaged as "inauthentic" in the Aughts by people who had never heard of balsalmic vinegar in 1998.
As for custard, we go to Culver's restaurants regularly, and their custard seems excellent to us. And this is a big franchising operation. So someone can still make custard machines...
Probably the best resource for the historical use of language in the United States is newspapers.com. It does not include every newspaper published in the United States. For instance, the New York Times and the Washington Post are only available in years that they are in the public domain. “Pizza” occurs in a bell-shaped curve taking off in the 50s and strangely decreasing after 2010.
2010s 1.9 million
2000s 4.7 million
1990s 5,9 million
1980s 5,4 million
1970s 4 million
1960s 1.9 million
1950s 600K
1940s 49k
A big reason for the takeoff of American knowledge of how to say pizza was the Dean Martin platinum #2 hit in late 1953, “That's Amore.” The song begins, “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's Amore."
I can think of two reasons for the sharp drop-off in mentions of pizza in the 2010s and 2020s. The first is the loss of advertising income for newspapers— simply not as many ads for pizza parlors. The secondary reason may be that pizza was no longer newsworthy.
That's pretty neat. 50s feels about right. (Wonder how many American boys in Italy in WWII encountered pizza for the first time?)
From what I know about Italy in 1944 they were basically on starvation rations. I don't think too many restaurants were open. There are a few mentions of pizza in American newspapers going back to the 19th century. I think this is an Italian American phenomenon.
Was food better in the past? A person could be skeptical about this and claim that this is just the "rose-colored glasses" of nostalgia. You know, the same way that people claim that baseball, music, and bars were also better "back in the day."
With ethnic family restaurants, though, it seems plausible that they served better food in the 1950s and 1960s than a 2020s chain restaurant, where the food is mostly frozen, processed, pre-seasoned, and pre-portioned.
In the past, restaurants were more likely to make soups, sauces, marinades, and gravies from scratch. Nowadays these items are bottled or powdered and filled with additives and preservatives. As well, in the past, restaurants were more likely to use family recipes and cooking practices learned by word of mouth.
I had an experience where the youngsters just don't know what's going on. I went into a new Chinese takeout shop in my neighborhood and was disappointed by the fried rice. The next time, I said, “I'd like some fried rice with Chinese vegetables." The young man speaking perfectly English said to me, "Peas are Chinese vegetables." It was pretty obvious to me that these peas came out of a plastic bag from a Kroger about 200 yards away. I said, “No, they are not." Needless to say, I never went back, and I think this joint went out of business shortly thereafter.
BTW, we have a great Chinatown in sprawling Houston, but it is unfortunately about 15 miles from my house.
Foreign food was definitely rare in the other Manhattan. I remember sharply the first time we ate at a Mexican restaurant in 1961. It was on the wrong side of the tracks and seemed sort of dark and grimy, but the food was an OH WOW revelation. Not the familiar tacos and burritos, a chili that contained *recognizable pieces and flavors* of beef and tomatoes and beans.
My mom was an outstandingly bad cook, opening cans and boiling everything down to a tasteless mush, so perhaps the Mexican-ness wasn't the salient factor. School cafeteria food and jail food were also wonderful. Even so, this one bowl of chili remained with me as the gold standard, and I've always tried to aim in that direction with my own cooking.
In reference to your question about the word "pizza," here's something I've noticed:
In 1975, Steely Dan released their album "Katy Lied," which included a song called "Bad Sneakers." The first line of its chorus goes:
Bad sneakers and a pina colada, my friend
Donald Fagen sings "peena colada."
In 1979, Rupert Holmes released "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)." One of its lines is:
If you like piña coladas, and getting caught in the rain
Holmes sings "peenya colada" (which is why I included the tilde in this case; I don't actually remember whether the song's alternate title was printed with the tilde).